ISLAMABAD - The Islamabad High Court (IHC) on Tuesday issued notices to Prime Minister Imran Khan in PML-N leader Khawaja Asif’s petition seeking right to cross-examine the PM in a defamation suit.
A single bench of the court comprising Chief Justice of IHC Justice Athar Minallah issued the notices while hearing a petition of Khawaja Asif challenging the sessions court’s decision of not giving his counsel a right to present arguments in a defamation suit worth Rs10billion filed by Prime Minister Imran Khan against him.
The bench also stayed the Additional District and Sessions Judge (ADSJ) from conducting proceedings in this matter till the next hearing and deferred the proceedings till January 12.
Imran Khan had filed defamation suit against Khawaja Asif in 2012 for recovery of Rs10 billion as at a press conference, the PML-N leader had levelled allegations of misappropriation of funds and money laundering through the Shaukat Khanum Memorial Trust (SKMT) funds.
The Prime Minister had submitted an affidavit last month to Additional District and Sessions Judge Muhammad Adnan via video link against the PML-N leader for levelling allegations of non-transparency, money laundering and use of anonymous companies in the SKMT funds.
Imran Khan stated in the document submitted before the court that on August 1, 2012, Asif, while addressing a news conference held at the Punjab House, had alleged that Imran had indulged in money laundering or had approved the commission of the practice through the SKMT. Later on the same evening at a private TV programme, he repeated the allegations.
In his petition, the PML-N leader challenged the lower court’s verdict and cited PM Imran and the sessions court judge as respondents. Asif adopted that PM’s statement was recorded by the additional district and sessions judge via video link in the absence of his lawyer.
He said that his counsel had informed the sessions court that he could not appear on December 17 due to ill-health but the ADSJ recorded the premier’s statement in the absence of his counsel and the sessions court announced the verdict in haste without referring to any law.
He prayed the IHC bench to annul the decision of lower court of terminating his right to cross-examination.
During the hearing, Justice Athar asked that since when the case was pending. Asif’s counsel replied that the defamation suit was filed in 2012 and questions were formulated in 2021, to which the judge asked who was responsible for the delay when the court had ordered that defamation cases be disposed of quickly.
The bench said that are you saying that the delay was caused by Imran Khan? The case is being delayed since 2012 and it should have been decided in two months. The counsel responded that both parties had taken adjournments. He said the Prime Minister had not pursued the case initially and only started doing so later. He said that Asif was in the custody of the National Accountability Bureau for six months — from December 2020 to June 2021 — when the issues were framed.
He said that during that time Asif was unable to consult his lawyer and the ADSJ decided to proceed ex parte on account of the counsel’s absence. He said that the sessions judge’s order is illegal, unsustainable and based on not reading the record and prayed to the court to declare the lower court’s order illegal and also suspend it.